Submit submit submit
Prepare to be horrified.
Deutsche Welle again, this time reporting that the police in Kano State, Nigeria are running around all over the place enforcing Ramadan. State police are running around forcing citizens to go without water and food from sunrise to sunset, because religion.
The religious police in Kano State have been cracking down on Muslims who fail to fast during the holy month of Ramadan. As DW’s Nasir Zango reports, the suspects could be caned in public if found guilty.
Caned in public for drinking water for example.
How do the police even know which people are Muslims and which aren’t? And how is it any of their business in the first place?
The Kano State Police, also known as Hisbah, have arrested scores of people for failure to fast and ensuring compliance with the rules of Ramadan, the third pillar of Islam.
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Since Ramadan began on June 6, Kano police have deployed its men to strategic places in the state to ensure compliance with the rules of Ramadan. Those who are found to be violating the rules have been arrested and held for interrogation.
Why? Why? Why? Kano police are state police, government police. Ramadan is a religious thing. Last I heard Nigeria is not a theocracy. What is this? Are they all trying to out-Boko Haram Boko Haram?
Deputy Commandant of Kano’s Hisbahm, Nabahani Usman, said that those arrested would be prosecuted and be sentenced according to the law. “We hold them at Hisbah for at least two days to teach them the importance of fasting,” Usman said. He added that every adult Muslim must observe the holy month.
According to what law? Is there an actual law on the books that says Kano Muslims are required to observe Ramadan?
According to Islamic teachings, fasting helps one feel compassion for those who are less fortunate and underprivileged.
“We deem it fit and necessary to ensure that every Muslim in Kano State observe Ramadan. We have a report of people who are not complying with this important pillar of Islam; hence we mobilize our men to arrest them,” Usman emphasized.
But that’s not the job of the police, properly constituted. It doesn’t matter what some cop or set of cops “deem fit and necessary.” The cops aren’t there to make people nicer, or more dehydrated.
The “men” referred to are Muslim scholar operatives whose work is to enhance Islamic teachings based on the Quran. They also have powers to arrest and detain notorious “non-compliant” followers.
Oh really? Like the mutaween? So Kano is emulating Saudi Arabia then? Why?
Besides the arrests and detentions, the convicts are subject to beatings after they have been handed a sentence by the religious courts. However, punishments given out by the Hisbah police have been strongly criticized by human rights activists. They accuse the police of overstepping mandate.
Activist and law professor at University of Bayero in Kano, Barrister Audu Bulama Bukarti, said the Nigerian constitution does not allow any religion to punish anybody for not fasting.
“Section 36 of the constitution of Nigeria is very clear that nobody should be arrested or punished except for an offence which is defined by a written law of Nigeria,” Bukarti said. “I am not aware of any law that makes fasting compulsory in Nigeria whether on Muslims or on any other person in the country.” However he called on Muslims to abide by Sharia Law unless they have “acceptable excuses.”
He should have skipped that last bit. People need to stop all this religious policing.
DW’s correspondent Nasir Zango in Kano State has seen several people at the headquarters of the Hisbah in the Sharada area who are being held for non-observance of Ramadan. One of them told Zango that he failed to fast due to chronic ulcers.
“I cannot fast while also taking both modern and herbal medicine to cure it,” he said.
It is not the first time the Hisbah religious police have cracked down on people for not observing the rules of Ramadan in the region. In 2012, more than 20 people were arrested by Hisbah for deliberately refusing to fast and they were held in detention for three days.
Completely disgusting.
Can you imagine the outcry there would be if US police in some city (say, my city, which has a high concentration of Catholics) started rounding up Catholics for not observing Lent? Same principle, only people can’t see it, because in the US we don’t consider it cultural insensitivity to protect the rights of practicing Catholics who choose to practice in their own way, and ignore the guy in the dress and the funny hat who lives in a sovereign state run by a church.
When it comes to Islam, however, we feel we have to be “culturally sensitive” which means ignoring the ordinary everyday Muslims who feel they have a right to determine their own level of piety and commitment to a dangerous practice. In any other context, forcing people not to drink water for a month in the tropics would be rightfully regarded as abuse. If religion is tacked on as a reason, suddenly it’s insensitive to notice the abusive nature, and we are supposed to value the spiritual benefits of an ancient tradition.
That lat paragraph was the first thing that sprang to my mind. There’s supposed to be health exemptions. Some health problems are permanent and hopefully those people have a medical excuse that will protect them in court. But will they even be allowed to break fast while pending trial? Unlikely. Furthermore, some illnesses are short lived with proper care. For instance, when you have a virus, your doctor will tell you to drink lots of fluids, and if you know what you’re dealing with, you’ll just self care instead of clogging up the medical system. But a self-diagnosis is hardly going to stand up in court, will it?
They are going to be flogging, or maybe killing (by denying care) people who are SUPPOSED to be exempt from the fast.
Yeah I don’t even want to talk about health exemptions, because that accepts the idea that other people are not exempt. That’s bullshit. Everyone should be exempt. No one should be forced to go without water and food from sunset to sunrise for a month, period. Parents shouldn’t force children, spouses shouldn’t force each other, bosses shouldn’t force employees, imams shouldn’t force believers. It should be wholly voluntary for adults, and forbidden to minors. The part about water should be done away with altogether. It’s a sick, fucked-up thing.
Ophelia @3,
I completely agree that everyone should be exempt & have a choice about their level of observation, but one point about health exemptions is that they too are part of the rules which are flatly ignored by the compliance police. How is it determined that the version of Sharia law that should be enforced is the harshest possible? It seems to be an assumption (fear?) that any loopholes at all will be exploited by Muslims who don’t really want to observe the rules – with the attendant loss of control by the clerics. Never mind, I answered my own question…
I’m an atheist in a Jewish family, and will often participate in some of the rituals like fasting on Yom Kippur (out of solidarity? support? respect? Because sometimes I do things that I can’t really rationally justify?). But my spouse & I decided long ago that going without water for 24 hours is completely unacceptable, so we will drink throughout the day. Fortunately, we can do this discreetly for the simple reason of not being obnoxious to others, rather than out of fear of being arrested and beaten.
Helicam – good point. I get so furious at the whole thing that I…er…become intemperate.
One reason I read your blog (dare I say “religiously”) is because you do such an great job of collecting important stories that are not easily found, if at all, in the other news that I read. Sadly, many of these stories are really outrage-inducing & mere intemperacy shows great restraint. I could easily imagine a scene of laptops embedded in walls & forehead-shaped indentations in desks; I think I understand the occasional interlude of cats hiding in the darnedest places.
Heh. Thank you. In winter I don’t even need to turn the heat on! I’m self-boiling!